Taj Hotels CEO on the Sweeping Strategy Behind Delivering Best-Ever Financials

With travellers increasingly gravitating towards brands that not only epitomize the essence of world-class luxury but also follow responsible business practices, Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and CEO of Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), expects his company to be well poised to pave the future of hospitality.

The company recently announced its long-term three-pronged strategy to drive responsible profitable growth — Ahvaan 2025. Under the plan, the brand plans to re-engineer its margins, re-imagine its brands while restructuring its portfolio.

Indian Hotels Company Limited, the parent company of Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris, aims to build a portfolio of 300 hotels, and clock 33 percent earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin with 35 percent EBITDA share contribution from new businesses and management fees by 2025-26, said Chhatwal in an interaction with Skift.

With its rich history of pioneering destinations such as Goa, Rajasthan, Kerala, Bhutan, Nepal and more recently, the Andaman Islands and Northeast India, Indian Hotels Company has continued to develop key tourism circuits in the country.

The company has recently opened Vivanta Pakyong in the eastern Indian state of Sikkim and has plans to open a hotel in the famed Tawang valley in the northeastern Indian state of Arunanchal Pradesh. A Taj hotel in Kerala's Wayanad in the Western Ghats, known for its wildlife and spice plantations, is also in the offing.

The following is an interview with Puneet Chhatwal, who has been CEO si